Jan. 2, 2010
The Explorers are back in action at Bignhamton. Send your questions and comments for the Travel Blog to lasallesid1@aol.com or on the AOL instant messenger lasallesid1
Saturday, January 2
9:42 PM - Kevin
Well, not much to say after the 66-61 loss to Binghamton. Although Kale, Steve and I aren't bonafide members of the team, we still took the loss hard. We stopped at McDonald's on the way home and drowned our sorrows in some fast food.
One note of interest: the Binghamton scorekeeper (Michelle) coached high school basketball in New York for over 30 years and coached against Explorer head women's coach Tom Lochner. Small world.
Have to finish up a bit of work, then I'll be calling it a night.
3:02 PM - It's halftime and it looks like the Explorers have hit a rhythm . . . lets hope it keeps up in the second. Rodey just came by the table and said he got hit in the same toth he chipped against South Carolina.
Not many alum on this trip but Mik Furey did make the ride and I ran into WNEP news anchor, alum and buddy Scott Schaeffewho made the short trip from Scranton.
Almost time to get back to play - so, sorry if this post has any typos!
12:05 PM - We are now in the Events Center - what a nice facility. All the seats are green, we entered from the top and were mistaken for the officials by the Binghamton staff. There appears to be 20-25 rows of chairback seats on either side line and bleachers beyond the end lines. The end to our right is as high as the chariback seas but on the other end line there are only about 14 rows. There are two sizeable suites on either sideline above the chairbacks. The end zone seats to our left are in front of a large curtain that blacks off extended area for courts and other rec usage. It appears that all of the seats retract.
It currently seems pretty dark but as we speak I think the game lights are coming up. We are very early and waiting for the Binghamton women to wrap up practice. It is brutally cold up here with a few inches of snow on the ground. It was snowing a bit but Degs referred o it as "nuisance snow" for this part of the state - very minimal.
Brother Ed just heckled me about Navy winning their bowl game and Army not being in one. I see he did not take a new year's resolution to be nicer . . .
Steve is recording an extended interview with Coach Giannini to play at halftime. More in a bit . . .
11:55 AM - Kevin, Steve and I just got done eating at the Spiedies Steak Pit on Vestal Parkway. A spiedie is an upstate NY/Binghamton specialty of marinated meat (steak, pork or chicken) on a roll with assorted other toppings. Although I travelled this town in my Eastern League broadcasting days with the Erie SeaWolves, I never had one. Not bad . . . Degs is an old pro in this town and has had them frequently. Back in Allentown we stopped in the Dunkin Donuts where I bumped into a high school buddy - Craig Collins. Very random but good to see him. We are now heading to the arena.
10:35 AM - We will have a very quick blog for our first game of 2010. Due to family and other personal commitments Kevin and I travelled today while the team left yesterday afternoon. Next time this happens we will work on getting a guest blogger to chronicle the trip. Bonner met me at my house and we drove up the Northeast Extension of the PA Turnpike (I-476) and rendezvoused with Steve Degler at Allentown. Degs drove from there while I talked and Kevin suffered. We just stopped at the infamous truck stop that we chronicled in last year's blog to St. Bonaventure. Sadly, our buddy Clete was not there. We hope that's not the only thing that will be different this time. It looks like we are going to be very early in Binghamton and will have lots of spare time as this is going much faster than we thought.
